Roadtreking On Water or How to begin a Sugarbeet Adventure

Sitting on the deck of the SS Badger crossing Lake Michigan, I am worrying about two things. 1)Will Cricket, our pooch who is riding in the Roadtrek on the ferry’s auto deck below get sick? 2) Two decks above her on the promenade, will I?

Usually it’s just coffee for breakfast, but this morning, on board the 63 year old coal fired car ferry crossing Lake Michigan from Ludington to Manitowac,Wisconsin, the breakfast bar looked good. No price was evident, but by the time I added a couple sausages and eggs to my plate, the unseen $ 12.00 per plate price appeared and increased my appetite….at least my indignation. If I’m paying that much, I’m going to get my money’s worth. So sausages, ham, biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs with onions, French toast and pancakes were loaded on my plate. Need I say more?

The nautical term “one foot swell” would imply tiny little waves which would not bother a 62 year old 410 foot car ferry or a 65 year old passenger. Well, “bother” is a vague term and the ship did very well with the swells. Accompanying the swells was a cross wind of perhaps 6 to 10 knots. (“Knot” is another nautical term meant to convey the mystery and romance of sailing.) Combine the two and the aforementioned 65 year old becomes obsessed with his own abdomen oriented nautical mysteries.

Through the magic of digital photography, my Sweetest One's complexion was turned to a less green, more normal shade.

Oh, one other worry comes to mind. My wife of 46 years, during which perhaps eight days have been spend aboard a ship, is changing colors. And wobbling. And praying that I can do something to help her. I cannot, but we decide there must be something to do, so we begin exploring the ship. Here are our findings:

We discover the stern is rougher than the bow. Then we discover the bow is the front of the boat and, in fact, the bow is rougher than the stern.

The middle of the ship, known to sailors as “mid-ship” seems to have the least amount of up and down motion, or what we heard described as “lurch.”

The gift shop is located midship as well as the lounge for those who need as little gyration as possible.

The side of the ship facing the wind is colder and the leeward side is warmer. The leeward side also happens to get cinders and smoke from the stack of this coal burning relic of 1953.

We also find there are two types of plastic chairs set out on the deck. The lighter ones, though easier to move, are also more prone to collapsing when the ship suddenly lurches upward as a body is dropping downward.

(Note to self and multi-chromatic complexioned spouse–use the heavier chairs if given the choice.)

Dramamine is to be used before you start getting sea sick, as using it afterward adds rainbow colors to the range in which your world and complexion will turn.

Once settled into heavier chairs mid-ship on the leeward side we relax and enjoy the view.

As the cruise nears its interminable end, we catch sight of the Wisconsin land mass. Soon enough our Roadtrek bearing Cricket the Sooper Pooch, appears driving under the flood gates of the ferry and out into the parking lot. Control of our travel was once again mine. Terra firma lay beneath my wheels. And our trekking returned to the terra firma.

Two Walmart stays later, we’ve traveled to the head of the Mississippi River. There, in the beautiful town of Bemidji, Minnesota, we attended mass at St. Phillip’s Parish. The local Harvest Table restaurant provided us scores of breakfast choices and finally, refreshed in body and soul, we motored the rest of the way to Drayton, North Dakota.

The rain had been falling since we left Bemidji adding its own cast on our apprehension about working on a sugar beet harvest.Our tour is to be the fifteen days it takes American Crystal Sugar Inc. to harvest all the sugar beets from fields up and down the Minnesota-North Dakota border. Twenty nine sites are established where the beets will be delivered and piled and eventually moved to the plant in Drayton.

Our harvest jobs, while listed on the ACS website as HARD work, were described by our newly acquainted retiree camphost as no problem. Egad, as much as we like to hear that, we don't quite know how to handle such dissonance. And so there is a palpable apprehension regarding the upcoming harvest, perhaps a life changing revolution is in store for us.

We will see if the beating of our hearts, echoes the rumble of the trucks

and if there is a life about to start when tomorrow comes.

(apologies to Les Mis)

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A retired educator and his bride doing what they love. We are campers and we’d camp in anything. Our adventures include nearly every popular mobile domicile, including: the back of a new 1972 Vega station wagon with a ten month old, pop-up trailers pulled by our AMC Gremlin X, travel trailers pulled by pickup trucks, and more recently, modified conversion vans. We’ve visited a dozen national parks, fished sixty miles south of Hudson Bay on lakes visited only by Canadian Natives, “vamped” in campgrounds on the Keys and absolutely loved most of Michigan’s State Forests and campgrounds. Our wanderlust finally has an official name and a vehicle — a 2005 Roadtrek 210. We found Awesome and we’re ready to share.

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Roadtreking.com is a celebration of the RV Lifestyle, an attitude, a sense of exploration and adventure made possible by an RV, no matter its size or form. It is the work of award-winning journalist Mike Wendland, who travels North America in a Roadtrek motorhome with his wife, Jennifer. His reports, along with those from a group of experienced Roadtreking Reporter correspondents from across the continent, chronicles the interesting people and places encountered in pursuit of the RV lifestyle.

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